We’ve made it to the end of our all-American road trip: the beginning of Route 66 in Chicago Illinois. We spent a day exploring the busy city and enjoying the sites of the city.

Navy Pier

We really enjoyed spending a little time in the atrium. They have dancing water fountains that fascinated us as well as the kids that were there. Some of the fountains create a “tunnel” that we enjoyed walking and posing under. 

Tall Ship rides are available from the pier. We watched one out in the harbor.

We spent a long time having lunch (see below) and were pretty shocked when we got to the parking pay station. Word of advice: don’t spend an hour waiting for pizza if you are paying tens of dollars per hour for parking! I don’t even want to think about how long we would have been there if we had taken a Tall Ship sail!

Pizza

Giordano’s Pizza the pizza was totally worth the hour wait, just not while we were paying crazy high prices for parking! Chicago pizza is different, in just about every way possible, from St. Louis pizza. The pizza we got at Giordano’s was more like a pie, with the crust enclosing the bottom and sides of the several inches of layers of toppings, cheese (not Provel cheese), and sauce. So much sauce! It was so fantastic! Because it’s so thick, there is a wait but oh man is it worth the wait!

Traffic

Chicago is a two-story city - well, the roads anyway. The skyscraper buildings are of course much taller. We spent a lot of time driving in spirals trying to get to the correct layer of road. There was quite a bit of construction adding to the confusion. There was traffic in every part of the city. We were really smart to make this trek without Curby.  

Aqua Tower Skyscraper

The balconies on the Aqua Tower are designed so that looking up at the building from the street, waves appear. This 82-story building built in 2008 houses a hotel, residences, and offices. Every balcony is a different size and shape, causing the wave effect on the outside of the building. 

Muffler Man

The Muffler Man in Chicago is a rare one. He is a Native American Indian, and shirtless. He has one arm raised (in greeting, I assume) rather than holding a - muffler, hot dog, whatever… This particulate Muffler Man wears eyeglasses and I thought he would be standing on an eye doctor building but funny enough, he is atop a dentist! According to photos I found, at one time he wore a sign on his chest that said “eye can see now” - I guess that eye doctor retired. 

Buckingham Fountain

If you remember the television show “Married… with Children” you may recognize this fountain, which was featured in the opening credits along with Frank Sinatra singing “Love and Marriage.” This is one of the largest fountains in the world, and is located in Grant Park, which also boasts the beginning of Route 66.

The Actual Beginning

There are actually several signs in the vicinity of the “beginning” of the route. They are all within about a block of each other. Apparently this was done to spread out the traffic of people wanting to stand at “the beginning.”